ശ്രീ ഹരി ശരണാഷ്ടകമ്

Eight verses by the ascetic Brahmananda, each ending on the same line: therefore you alone are my refuge, friend of the destitute. What comes before the therefore changes each time, and the reasons accumulate. Some, the first verse says, hold that Shiva is to be meditated upon, others Shakti, others Ganesha, others the sun — and since it is you who shine in every one of those forms, therefore. The second strips away the human supports one after another: no brother, no father, no mother, no wife, no son, no wide family and no strength, and no helper of mine anywhere to be seen. The fifth admits that recalling his own past wrongs sets his heart shaking, and finds its ground for hope in the god's known name for purifying the fallen.